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Texts -- Jeremiah 12:1-17 (NET)

Context
12:1 Lord , you have always been fair whenever I have complained to you. However , I would like to speak with you about the disposition of justice . Why are wicked people successful ? Why do all dishonest people have such easy lives ? 12:2 You plant them like trees and they put down their roots . They grow prosperous and are very fruitful . They always talk about you , but they really care nothing about you. 12:3 But you , Lord , know all about me. You watch me and test my devotion to you. Drag these wicked men away like sheep to be slaughtered ! Appoint a time when they will be killed ! 12:4 How long must the land be parched and the grass in every field be withered ? How long must the animals and the birds die because of the wickedness of the people who live in this land? For these people boast , “God will not see what happens to us.” 12:5 The Lord answered, “If you have raced on foot against men and they have worn you out , how will you be able to compete with horses ? And if you feel secure only in safe and open country , how will you manage in the thick undergrowth along the Jordan River ? 12:6 As a matter of fact, even your own brothers and the members of your own family have betrayed you too . Even they have plotted to do away with you. So do not trust them even when they say kind things to you. 12:7 “I will abandon my nation . I will forsake the people I call my own. I will turn my beloved people over to the power of their enemies . 12:8 The people I call my own have turned on me like a lion in the forest . They have roared defiantly at me. So I will treat them as though I hate them. 12:9 The people I call my own attack me like birds of prey or like hyenas . But other birds of prey are all around them. Let all the nations gather together like wild beasts . Let them come and destroy these people I call my own. 12:10 Many foreign rulers will ruin the land where I planted my people . They will trample all over my chosen land . They will turn my beautiful land into a desolate wasteland . 12:11 They will lay it waste . It will lie parched and empty before me. The whole land will be laid waste . But no one living in it will pay any heed . 12:12 A destructive army will come marching over the hilltops in the desert . For the Lord will use them as his destructive weapon against everyone from one end of the land to the other . No one will be safe . 12:13 My people will sow wheat , but will harvest weeds . They will work until they are exhausted , but will get nothing from it. They will be disappointed in their harvests because the Lord will take them away in his fierce anger . 12:14 “I, the Lord , also have something to say concerning the wicked nations who surround my land and have attacked and plundered the land that I gave to my people as a permanent possession. I say: ‘I will uproot the people of those nations from their lands and I will free the people of Judah who have been taken there. 12:15 But after I have uprooted the people of those nations, I will relent and have pity on them. I will restore the people of each of those nations to their own lands and to their own country . 12:16 But they must make sure you learn to follow the religious practices of my people . Once they taught my people to swear their oaths using the name of the god Baal . But then, they must swear oaths using my name , saying, “As surely as the Lord lives , I swear.” If they do these things, then they will be included among the people I call my own. 12:17 But I will completely uproot and destroy any of those nations that will not pay heed ,’” says the Lord .

Pericope

NET
  • Jer 11:18--12:17 -- A Plot Against Jeremiah is Revealed and He Complains of Injustice

Bible Dictionary

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Hymns

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  • [Jer 12:1] I Plead Thy Love

Questions

Resources/Books

Expository Notes on the Bible (Constable)

  • The peace (fellowship, NIV) offering was the third sacrifice of worship. It represented the fellowship between God and man that resulted from the relationship that God had established with the redeemed individual. Peace and f...
  • Three parts also mark this record of the later period of Asa's reign: his war with Baasha (vv. 1-6), Hanani's sermon (vv. 7-10), and the conclusion of his reign (vv. 11-14).Asa's heart was right in that he consistently loved ...
  • David longed for the time when God would initiate salvation for Israel from Zion. When he wrote, Israel was at least partially under a hostile foreign power's control. The psalmist believed God would one day restore His peopl...
  • The psalmist now changed his figure and pictured Israel as a vine that God had transplanted from Egypt to Canaan. He cleared the land of Canaan for her by driving the native people out. Israel had taken root in the Promised L...
  • The trust of the wise son (vv. 5-6) comes from heeding sound teaching (vv. 1-4), and it leads to confident obedience (vv. 7-9)."Teaching"(v. 1, Heb. torah) means "law"or, more fundamentally, "direction."Here the context sugge...
  • The emphasis in this pericope is on the lack of qualified leaders and the consequent collapse of society that would result because God's people put their trust in people rather than in Him. The name "the Lord [sovereign] God ...
  • Isaiah, as a folk singer, sang a parable about a vineyard that compared Israel to a vineyard that Yahweh had planted and from which He legitimately expected to receive fruit.57However, the prophet's original audience did not ...
  • Isaiah continued the sheep metaphor but applied it to the Servant to contrast sinful people and their innocent substitute. Here it is not the sheep's tendency to get lost but its nondefensive nature that is the characteristic...
  • The leaders of Israel were responsible for the peoples' failure to appreciate the difference between a real relationship with God and membership in the covenant community of Israel."The critique of leadership offered here is ...
  • The composition and structure of Jeremiah, discussed below, have led many scholars to conclude that an editor or editors (redactors) probably put the book in its final form. Many conservatives, however, believe that Jeremiah ...
  • The biblical records of the times in which Jeremiah ministered are 2 Kings 21-25 and 2 Chronicles 33-36. His contemporary prophets were Zephaniah and Habakkuk before the Exile, and Ezekiel and Daniel after it began.King Manas...
  • Jeremiah's purpose was to call his hearers to repentance in view of God's judgment on Judah, which would come soon from an army from the north (chs. 2-45). Judgment was coming because God's people had forsaken Yahweh and had ...
  • I. Introduction ch. 1A. The introduction of Jeremiah 1:1-3B. The call of Jeremiah 1:4-191. The promise of divine enablement 1:4-102. Two confirming visions 1:11-19II. Prophecies about Judah chs. 2-45A. Warnings of judgment on...
  • 1:4 The prophet now began speaking to his readers and telling them what the Lord had said to him. Throughout this book, an indication that the Lord had told Jeremiah something is often the sign of a new pericope, as here (cf....
  • This vision may have come to Jeremiah immediately after the preceding one or at some other time.1:13 The Lord next directed Jeremiah to view a boiling pot (cauldron used for cooking or washing, Heb. sir) that was tipped so th...
  • Chapters 2-25 contain warnings and appeals to the Judahites in view of their sins and the consequences of those sins.
  • "The striking feature of this chapter is its rapidity of movement leading to the gathering storm of invasion soon to engulf the capital and the land."1506:1 The Lord called the Benjamites, Jeremiah's tribal kinsmen, to flee f...
  • This passage consists of five short parts (vv. 1-5, 6-8, 9-10, 11-14, and 15-17). Most scholars believe it dates from the reign of Josiah, perhaps after the discovery of the Law but before he initiated his reforms (about 621 ...
  • This pericope contains one of Jeremiah's "confessions,"a self-revelation of the prophet's own struggles to cope with God's actions (cf. 10:23-24; 15:10-12, 15-21; 17:9-11, 14-18; 18:18-23; and 20:7-18).219The heart of this on...
  • Most scholars believe this lament dates from the time when Jehoiakim revolted against Babylon after three years of submission (about 602 B.C.; cf. 2 Kings 24:1-2).225"The second part of God's reply is remarkable, saying in ef...
  • This prophecy about Israel's neighbors anticipates chapters 46-51, which contain oracles against Gentile nations.12:14 The Lord promised to judge Judah's neighbor nations that had robbed His people of what the Lord had given ...
  • The next five sections (vv. 1-4, 5-8, 9-11, 12-13, and 14-18) continue the theme of Judah's guilt from the previous chapter. These pericopes have obvious connections with one another, but they were evidently originally separa...
  • This is another section that contains one of Jeremiah's "confessions."Evidently there were several separate plots against the prophet's life (cf. 11:18-23; 12:1-6). People hated him because he brought bad news and called them...
  • This section of the book contains some of Jeremiah's messages concerning Judah's kings (21:1-23:8) and false prophets (23:9-40) that he delivered closer to the time of Jerusalem's invasion than the previous chapters.300Beginn...
  • 24:1 This prophetic message came to Jeremiah after Nebuchadnezzar had taken King Jehoiachin (Coniah, Jeconiah, cf. 22:24) and many of the other royal counselors, craftsmen, and smiths (or artisans) captive to Babylon in 597 B...
  • 25:30 Jeremiah was also to announce that God would prepare to judge all the inhabitants of the earth (v. 29). As a lion announces its intent to attack with a roar, so Yahweh would one day announce His attack on earth dwellers...
  • These chapters contrast the true prophet of Yahweh with the false prophets. Distinguishing between them was difficult for Jeremiah's contemporaries, but their essential difference is clear. The true prophets proclaimed the Lo...
  • This was another of Jeremiah's symbolic acts (cf. 16:1-4; 18:1-12; 19:1-2, 10-11; 27:1-28:17; 43:8-13; 51:59-64).32:1 A message came to the prophet from the Lord about 587 B.C., the year before Jerusalem fell.32:2 Jerusalem w...
  • The Book of Consolation contained messages of future hope for Judah (chs. 30-33). Now Jeremiah returned to document her present judgment. Chapters 34-45 continue the theme of judgment on Judah and Jerusalem from chapters 2-29...
  • 35:1 This oracle came to Jeremiah during King Jehoiakim's reign (609-598 B.C.) after the Babylonians had begun to invade Judah (v. 11). Second Kings 24:1-2 reads, "In his [Jehoiakim's] days Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came...
  • This chapter belongs after chapter 36 chronologically, either after 36:8 or 36:32. It serves as an appendix to the historical incidents recorded there. Perhaps the writer or final editor placed it here to show that Yahweh exe...
  • This oracle is similar to the one in Isaiah 15 and 16.555Other oracles against Moab appear in Ezekiel 25:8-11, Amos 2:1-3, and Zephaniah 2:9, but this is the longest one. It is very difficult to say when Jeremiah gave this or...
  • Aharoni, Yohanan, and Michael Avi-Yonah. The Macmillan Bible Atlas. Revised ed. London: Collier Macmillan Publishers; and New York: Macmillan Publishers Co., 1977.Albright, William Foxwell. The Archaeology of Palestine. Revis...
  • This section is a lament and is similar to many psalms of lament (e.g., Ps. 6:3; 10:1-13; 13:1-4; 22:1-21; 74:1-11; 80:4; 88; 89:46; cf. Jer. 12:4; Zech. 1:12).1:2 In prayer the prophet asked Yahweh "how long"would he have to...
  • That another oracle is in view is clear from the question and answer format that begins this pericope, as it does the others. Verse 17 contains the question and answer, and the discussion follows in 3:1-6. The Israelites' cha...
  • This parable explains why the last will become first. It begins with a well known scene but then introduces surprising elements to make a powerful point."Jesus deliberately and cleverly led the listeners along by degrees unti...
  • This lamentation should help us realize that the judgment Jesus just announced in such strong language was not something that delighted Him. It broke His heart. This is also clear from His personalizing the people in Jerusale...
  • Another comment triggered teaching of a similar nature. The continuing theme is the messianic kingdom.13:31 This incident followed the former one chronologically. Therefore it is probable that Jesus' words about Jews not ente...
  • The difference between this teaching and Jesus' parables in the Synoptics now becomes clearer. Jesus proceeded to compare Himself to the pen gate as well as to the Shepherd. He also described Himself leading His sheep into th...
  • Jesus often used a grapevine to describe the nation of Israel (cf. Matt. 20:1-16; 21:23-41; Mark 12:1-9; Luke 13:6-9; 20:9-16). The vine as a symbol of Israel appears on coins of the Maccabees.474Here Jesus used the vine meta...

Expositions Of Holy Scripture (Maclaren)

  • If thou hast run with the footmen, and they, have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses? and though in a land of peace thou art secure, yet how wilt thou do in the pride of Jordan?'--Jer. 12:5. R.V.THE prophet...
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